Halswell Learning Community Cluster

This learning community cluster includes five state primary schools, one state intermediate school, one special school, one state secondary, two state integrated, one kura, the two special character schools relocated from Christchurch Central and 22 early childhood education providers.

As part of renewal planning, the Minister of Education announced a final decision to close Manning Intermediate in May 2013.

There are 941 licence spaces across the early childhood providers in this cluster, including 205 spaces for children under two years of age. At July 2011, 1133 children were enrolled at early childhood services in this cluster, 273 were under two. 327 of the 337 new entrant students who enrolled at a school in the Halswell Cluster in the year to March 2012 had attended an ECE service. 22 of the 24 Maori new entrant students and all but one of the 16 Pasifika new entrants had attended an ECE service.

There are three types of schools: state, private (or registered or independent) and state integrated schools. (State integrated schools are former private schools which, while now “integrated” into the state system, also provide programmes around their particular religious or learning philosophy.) State and state integrated schools, while government funded, are managed by boards of trustees. Private schools receive only partial funding from the Government. Day to day management of ALL schools is the responsibility of the Principal. The Crown is responsible for property provision for state schools to ensure students have access to their closest school. The proprietors of state integrated and private schools are responsible for their own buildings.

The Halswell cluster includes one Special school, two state integrated schools and three special character schools. Two of these, Discovery One and Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti were temporarily located to Halswell following the February 2012 earthquakes.

School boards are required to develop individual charters and annual plans and report their performance against these.You will be able to access the school charter from your school or at Find a school.

In March 2010, prior to the earthquakes, the primary schools in this cluster provided teaching and learning to 2707 students. While individual rolls have fluctuated, the combined primary roll in this cluster has declined by 105 to 2602 at March 2012.

Individual School March Rolls, 2008, 2010, and 2012:

Note: only roll data for primary schools in this cluster is displayed.

The following chart shows the ethnic composition of the combined cluster school rolls by percentage of total combined roll

Education Achievement

National Standards aim to lift achievement in literacy and numeracy (reading, writing, and mathematics) by being clear about what students should achieve and by when. Boards were required to report on learners’ achievement for 2011 in the 2012 Annual Report.

You will be able to access National Standards data for your school from the Find a school section of the Education Counts website as soon as this information is available.

Special Education

Halswell Residential College (residential Special School) is situated in this cluster. Students attend from outside of the cluster area also. Special Education delivers specialist services and support to learners with special education needs across this cluster. This includes support to early childhood education, schools, teachers, parents, families and whānau.

Māori and Pasifika provision

Māori-medium education programmes involve students being taught either all or some curriculum subjects in the Māori language, either in immersion (Māori language only) or bilingual (Māori and English) programmes. Māori bilingual provision in this cluster is delivered at Rowley Avenue School, Manning Intermediate and Halswell Residential College. Rowley Avenue School also has a Samoan bilingual unit, which is the only one in the South Island. The cluster also has a Maori immersion Kura.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision

ESOL provision for refugee and new migrant learners from non-english speaking backgrounds is provided to 77 primary and 16 secondary learners across the schools in this cluster.

Technology

Technology provision in this cluster is located at Manning Intermediate and Hillmorton High School.

Land – State Schools Only

School sites sit outside the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) land classification process and WILL NOT be given any Technical Category foundation rankings, though the land in the surrounding residential area of this cluster has been classified TC2 and TC3. Geotechnical assessments on the state school sites in this cluster indicate land issues may compromise continued education provision.

Further ministry commissioned assessments may be required at a later date, should any of these sites be further developed.

Buildings – State Schools Only

There are 108 teaching spaces included in the 11,837 square metres (of useable space) of teaching and learning and administration areas across this cluster of state schooling provision.The teaching, learning and administrative space is incorporated into 124 actual buildings. All of these buildings suffered damage during the earthquakes. Repairs have yet to be made to the building stock. Condition assessments confirm over time earthquake strengthening will be required across 32 of these buildings within the cluster. There are weather tightness issues in a further 12 buildings.

Building Condition Information – State Schools Only

Number of Buildings

Number of buildings with EQ Damage

Number of buildings with Strengthening required

Number of buildings with Weather tightness repairs required

Number of buildings with Both Strengthening and Weather tightness repairs

Halswell School

40

40

9

0

0

Hoon Hay

11

11

4

2

2

Manning Intermediate

14

14

4

0

0

Oaklands

26

26

6

8

0

Rowley Avenue

10

10

0

0

0

Spreydon

23

23

9

2

0

Cluster

124

124

32

12

2

Based on March 2012 rolls – a minimum of 85 teaching spaces will be required for ongoing teaching and learning in this cluster, as below.

School Rolls and Classroom Numbers – State Schools Only

March 2010 Roll

Classroom (No.) current (July 2012)

March 2012

Roll

Estimated classrooms required at March 2012

Halswell School

612

27

530

22

Hoon Hay

388

18

390

16

Manning Intermediate

196

15

154

10

Oaklands

470

23

495

21

Rowley Avenue

105

11

102

5

Spreydon

298

14

264

11

Cluster

2069

108

1935

85

The Way Forward

Extensive condition assessments and engineering investigations have confirmed all buildings in this cluster currently remain fit to occupy – unless already isolated.A number of the buildings across this cluster will, however, require remediation and strengthening over the longer-term. 10 are not considered cost effective to repair. This includes 35 teaching spaces.

Future planning

The earthquakes provide an opportunity, as outlined in the Education Renewal Recovery Programme [PDF; 881kb], to consider options for revitalising the greater Christchurch education network that go beyond simply replacing what was there. Discussions with schools, communities and providers within this cluster will be key to informing decisions around the future shape of education for the Halswell education community. Ways to enhance infrastructure and address existing property issues, improve education outcomes, and consider future governance will form part of these discussions.

Community Engagement

Cluster support groups will be established to lead community engagement. The Ministry of Education will support these groups in providing information to their communities and gathering feedback to identify the preferred way forward.In line with the support signalled in the Education Renewal Recovery Programme [PDF; 881kb], for improved collaboration, this will provide an opportunity to gain further suggestions around shared provision across schools and services within specific areas of interest and the wider community, as appropriate.Boards will formally consult with their communities where closures or mergers are indicated

Secondary, state integrated and independent schools located within these clusters will be involved in discussions around the future shape of provision within their education communities.

The Ministry has worked collaboratively with secondary schools on ideas for future secondary school education provision in greater Christchurch. In October 2013, the Minister of Education announced decisions for the secondary school network.